The Former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of Nigeria has advised the Electoral Commission and political parties to ensure stability in Ghana's electoral system.
Professor Attahiru Jega was in Ghana on Wednesday to deliver a public lecture on the election experiences in Nigeria.
As part of the Institute of Economic Affairs 25th anniversary celebration, the Nigerian immediate past Electoral Commission engaged stakeholders on the theme "Towards Free and Fair Elections in Africa - The Nigerian Experience".
Nigeria's elections have been touted as one of the best democratic elections in Africa and the world at large.
The March 2015 Nigerian elections saw Vice Chancellors and Professors volunteering to ensure free and fair elections as Prof. Attahiru Jega rolled out a number of initiatives that rid the electoral system of violence and political interferences.
Delivering a speech at the main auditorium of the College of Physician and Surgeons in Accra, Prof. Attahiru Jega ran the gathering through the procedures that contributed to the much acclaimed Nigerian experience.
According to him, during his tenure as Electoral Commissioner, he proposed a new register for the credible elections to be conducted.
The new register helped him and his team to clean the electoral system and prevent multiple registrations.
He further put in place an Election Risk Management tool, internal retreat and assessment, alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, a 4-year strategic planning; all towards enhancing democratic electoral system in Nigeria.
To enable the INEC to do better elections in 2015, Prof. Jega noted the Commission set up Election Operation Centers and rapid response teams to monitor the election.
The Commission also kept a database of the electorates in 36 States in Nigeria and two disaster national database centers to deal with any challenges with storage of the database.
Prof. Jega highlighted the significance in biometric and verification election process, saying the Commission rolled out biometric Identity Cards (IDs) that had embedded microchips that disallowed double counting and voting.
According to him, the EC ensure an air-tight electoral system that raised the stakes for free and fair elections in Nigeria.
Prof. Attahiru Jega therefore advised Ghana to take cues from the Nigerian experience.
“We now pose a big challenge to you to make your elections better than ours. We used to be very vociferous competitors on the football field – the Black Stars – but let us be vociferous competitors in the democratic arena…To keep deepening democracy and consolidating it, and above all to keep on improving peace, security and stability in our countries.”
He urged Ghana's Electoral Commission and the citizenry to allow political interferences in the election process.
“The individual objectives of politicians which are selfish in terms of winning elections, we should not allow them to override national and collective interest," he said.
Present at the IEA lecture were NPP Flagbearer Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo, suspended General Secretary Kwabena Agyepong, Former First Lady Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings, Former Chief of Staff Nana Ato Dadzie, Former CHRAJ Boss Emile Short among other dignitaries.
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